1) Most retail or ISP "home networking" routers are built to a low, low price, and you only get what you pay for.
2) The router OS usually does not include (e.g.) a cron job to reboot regularly to force automatic cleanup of queues, etc. Some customers would like this, but it might be considered disruptive, so it's avoided.
3) Even if the manufacturer's power supply is robust, they are often mismatched, whether by ISP techs or home owners, and this causes all sorts of problems including overheating and frequent router resets.
4) [Name of ISP withheld] guidance is NOT to plug an integral modem/router into a power bar or surge protector if possible, since this is supposed to help avoid the problem of the router resetting itself to factory defaults due to a "power surge" (supposedly caused by: lightning, "storm surge", brown-out, or power cut). This mainly affects wireless clients, since customization (SSID, WEP or WPA) gets lost, and you end up with a house full of "wireless orphans".
5) Rightly or wrongly, many High Speed Internet customers seem to be under the impression that their service is supposed to be up and available ALL the time. Looking at their monthly tariffs (often $50 per month or higher) this is not unreasonable, whereas - in practice - most residential Internet equipment (modems and routers) is subject to various additional upstream issues including line breaks, cable head end restarts, upstream router restarts, name server switching (?), and all sorts of other issues I don't even know about. In this environment, having to restart FIRST the modem, and THEN the router cleans up more than 50% of all "can't connect" scenarios, and - these days - you often do NOT have to restart the computers as well. This simple information is not known by the majority of consumers, especially those whose own sense of "entitlement" gives them the mindset to get on the phone and be sarcastic (or worse) at the first sign of any disruption to their (residential service), "because I work from home", etc. Arguably, MOST router restarts are requested by ISP tech support folks while trying to do basic cleanup as a prelude to other troubleshooting.
6) I have some sympathy for folks who happen to live "in a bad spot" in terms of their chosen Internet provider's infrastructure. They just seem to go apoplectic after a while if problems continue.
In conclusion, consumers deserve better, and the industry (both ISPs and router manufacturers) should be providing it.
